How To Begin Designing Your Garden

They say gardening is the ultimate form of hope. You plant tiny seeds in the absolute faith that something grand will grow. No garden design is ever finished. Plants fail, tastes change & weather is unpredictable. Your garden may not be designed on paper, but the more thought you put into what you want and what you like or dislike about your...

The first step in designing a garden is an honest evaluation of the chosen site. The area should be assessed for soil, sun exposure, problem areas and areas you want to complement. The following cheat sheet will walk you through an evaluation of your garden site.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to have a great garden, but it sure is easy to get carried away. If you’re not a budgeter in any other aspect of your life, you are not going to change your habit in the garden. But to prevent sticker shock from arriving halfway through creating your garden, let’s look at an overview to determine what you can reasonably expect to spend.

How to assess your garden plant and make a garden you love that suits the way you live.

Color is arguably the most prominent factor in a garden design and often the first one considered. Good garden design involves knowing how to combine colors so that the final product has a cohesive and pleasing effect. Here are some tips to train your eye to see color and for combining color in the garden.

The purpose of a garden focal point is to bring the garden into focus. What may start out as just a grouping of plants is given definition by a focal point. Viewers instantly know where to bring their attention. We'll demonstrate some techniques in the following photos, but with placing a focal point, like garden design in general, the more you do it, the better trained your eye will become.

Making over a garden can become necessary when the garden becomes overgrown or when site conditions, like lighting, change. Sometimes gardeners simply want to try creating a new garden. Here is some advice for taking a look at where you are with your garden plans and reassessing what you can do to capitalize on what you have.

A good site assessment is vital to any garden design. When creating a small garden, every space is important. Where to put the garden, how large to make it and the choice of plants all must be edited, unlike with a small garden. Here’s how to take an honest look at your garden site and what you can hope to plant there.

Examples of well exectued small garden designs. Photos of small flower gardens, borders, containers and vegetable gardens.

Gardening in urban areas is much like gardening anywhere else, with a few extra challenges. Here are tips for creating and maintaining a small city garden.

Silver medal winning garden designer, Mary Newstead, walks you through the design and redesign basics, through a series of lessons. From the Royal Horticulture Society.

Learn about garden styles and what steps to take first. You can even print out garden plans or custom order one of your own.

Dr. Leonard P. Perry outlines garden elements that will bring a sense of tranquility and calm to your garden space.